Defender Rally heads into the next round of the FIA World Rally‑Raid Championship following a landmark result at the Dakar Rally, where the team secured victory in the Stock class during its debut appearance at the event.
The pairing of Rokas Baciuška and navigator Oriol Vidal delivered the class win in the Defender Dakar D7X-R, establishing an early benchmark for the newly introduced rally programme. Their result formed the centrepiece of a strong three-car campaign that also saw Sara Price and Sean Berriman finish second in the category, while Stéphane Peterhansel and navigator Mika Metge completed the team’s competitive lineup.
Across the rally’s 13 stages, the Defender crews delivered a performance defined by consistency and reliability. Together, the three entries secured stage victories throughout the event and recorded a dominant “1-2-3” stage result across ten stages — a remarkable outcome for a programme making its first competitive appearance in the world’s toughest rally-raid event.
The success placed Baciuška at the top of the Stock class driver standings in the championship, while Price and Peterhansel currently occupy second and third place respectively. In the navigators’ standings, Vidal, Berriman and Metge mirror that position, holding the top three places after the opening round of the season.
At the centre of the team’s performance was the Defender Dakar D7X-R, a rally-raid machine derived from the production-based Defender OCTA. Built to comply with the latest FIA Stock class regulations, the competition vehicle retains the Defender’s D7x aluminium monocoque architecture and production driveline layout while incorporating key adaptations for rally-raid competition, including a wider track, increased ride height and revised suspension.
Power is delivered by the OCTA’s 4.4-litre twin-turbocharged V8, engineered to provide the durability and performance required for multi-stage endurance racing across extreme terrain.
For Defender Rally, the Dakar result represents a defining starting point for its multi-year rally-raid programme. With a class victory secured in its debut at the event, the team now carries that momentum forward as the championship continues with the bp Ultimate Rally‑Raid Portugal — building directly on the historic success achieved in the desert earlier this season.
